affordable housing  

Sounds like
you're on the way to building a lá Ando. Keep us posted !

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I will, just need to get some quotes and see whats viable, I'm trying very hard to get it down to 50sq metres. But 60 is the best I can seem to do without having foldaway beds and that sort of thing.

Where do we start...
Prefab/Modular houses have come a long way. They're quick & relatively easy, but "very cheap"-No; Affordable -Yes. Lately, getting more attention due to; post Katrina (U.S.), celebrities (Pitt,etc.) & architect's refocusing their priorities. Look up your local Architects you probably have something in your backyard. In the future, very cheap..probably. See Attached List for ideas.
There are extensive examples of architecture that does not compromise design & function & cost. Same can be said for products by Industrial designers. See Samuel Mockbee's work for the impoverished residents of rural Alabama.
There are alternatives for Waste disposal (legal) & Potable water.
Although they can be inconvenient & requires maintenance, you would circumvent the infrastructure costs.
There maybe Zoning requirements & Building Codes to address. This may affect your cost & design.
Look at what your neighbors are building. Vernacular architecture may resolve local building issues; e.g. microclimate, soil conditions, etc.
Avoid Contingency costs.
I recommend a mock Probable Construction cost. For organizing & visualizing materials & methods you need.
(Flat roof, pitched roof, fiberglass shingles, EPDM roofing system (comm'l.), engineered lumber, trusses, Lintels for openings, Finishes, Fixtures, concrete formwork, Expansion & Control joints, etc.)
Maybe spend a few $ for Architectural services. Design not Construction admin. State what your limitations are; money & skill. Limitations & restrictions. Have a budget for the Construction documents.
Minimize Conceptual & Preliminary stages. Do these if you can.
Create the Design program. The right Architect will address almost all your concerns.
Penny wise dollar foolish you don't need.
....there is much more....
Prefab Houses:
MARMOL RADZINER PREFAB
Rocio Romero
Michelle Kaufmann
Regional architecture:
Samuel Mockbee Rural Studio

cheers, where I live the coun...
cheers, where I live the council is very relaxed, if you can't see it from the road and it doesn't fall down you can get away with anything. I want to do something outside of the box here, it strikes me that much contemporay pre fab housing is painfully conventional, even if the aesthetics aren't. I don't live that way and don't want to be manipulated into it by my own house. I like bathing outside and hate internal fitted kitchens.
The vernacular here is bastardised california bungalow, litle sound or thermal insulation and its not something I want to emulate.
Round concrete tanks are looking very attractive, I can do all the fit-out myself...we'll see, I'll post some 3d modelling of my ideas.

It's been done but different material.
Right up your alley. SILOS. Grain, Missile. Retrofitted Lighthouses, etc.
http://freshome.com/tag/monte-silo-house/

I like round houses (my paren...
I like round houses (my parents first house, they built it themselves, were two thatched cylinders connected by a loggia) but think they have to be very tidy and quite pure not to look like some age of aquarias shack.
I think corrugated iron could work but a slab would still have to poured and I wonder if wool or glass fibre batting would be as good an insulator as concrete...and then theres gyprocking the inside. Grrrr. But thanks for the idea.

Architect's own houses
Could be also useful a research on architect's own houses, designed and constructed for/by themselves.
You'll find an equilibrium between exploration and affordability.
In most of them I admire how much they can do with so little.
Comes to my mind many, so many clever and elegant details, with a minimum cost. (That means quite cheap)
In your personal case, indeed, would be a sin, not to find a lot of woodworking!. Made by yourself as well as a 3rd contractor.

thanks for the thought, I...
thanks for the thought, I hadn't really pondered that.
The more I look around though the more I like concrete, the 3d models came out well and I really don't like being surrounded by my work or anyone elses much anymore, its just too distracting and its nice to retreat away from relentless consciosness of furniture and objects, much as I love them. Friends often ask why my place looks the way it does, all the furniture is stored away, the truth is, it just gets in the way!
Does anyonme else ever have this impulse to get rid of all their stuff? Or gets to the point where you just can't stand the sight of it anymore?

I do, Heath
I go through purges, such as I am now as we ready ourselves to move across country. I give it away, sell it donate or whatever. I like to bring myself to only what I truly need and love and then I still often have the urge to push it even further. I don't function well in a visually chaotic environment. A side effect of being badly ADHD as a child, methinks. In times of stress, and being unemployed, selling your home and moving cross country certainly counts as a time of stress, I seem to want to live monkishly to calm my mind.
To speak of your house building idea, we've been thinking a lot on what our place will be like when we've settled in New Mexico. I've learned a thing or two to pass on to you. The first is that making your home energy efficient is paramount and insulating or ventilating according to your climate is most of the efficiency equasion. the second thing I have learned is that going off grid with electricity is a demanding lifestyle so running that werive is well worth the cost. Lastly if you live in a sunny locale, use what it has to offer you, but don't get hung up on using hte currently rendy solar electric systems. the better bang for the buck is solar thermal.

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Thanks Olive, much appreciated. Though I'm mad for sustainability in most things going off grid is distinctly unattractive, it's the cost but mostly that I run some pretty demanding power tools. When you say solar thermal I take it you mean the large parabolic dishes that schoolkids cook sausages on? I read about them years ago and still can't understnd why they aren't more popular then the flat panels.
I know I have a lot more research to do on insulation but I'm lucky to have a 3d modelling package that allows for remarkably clever animated daylight simulations, any position in the world at any time of the year with varying degrees of cloud cover. Have you ever used anything like this? It allows me to see clearly just how far sun will penetrate in the depths of winter and how deep to make my verandahs for summer.
The enthusiasm for cast concrete is mostly becuase its a very established industry in this area (with a good amount of competition to bring costs down) and of course I think its attractive too.
As for my furniture I should like to set fire to all of it! I made a list of what I'll require to live in this concrete box of mine and its very small.

Cast concrete n wood
When thinking on wood, was not in furniture, but in construction. Could be an interesting challenge to force you to change the scale.
I remember smart and cheap solutions: a house in Stuttgart, A big box (6m or 9meters height) and with 2 or three levels with the wood panels (sorry don´t remember English word now).
Or a stair which the fourth step is converted in a table. Kitchen cabinets which you don't know if are a furniture or the building.
etc.
Of course all this if makes you down the prices much, if not go with the traditional way.
Cast concrete
"
The enthusiasm for cast concrete is mostly because its a very established industry in this area (with a good amount of competition to bring costs down) "
But then, Excellent. I re-read the link of your first post. Could be Great!.
I'd only check the insulation, but you said you have a benign climate, so would be OK.
On concrete on local Own architects houses, I remember when use cast concrete some introduce in the cast: branches, leaves (small or big or a palm leaf, etc), I remember also some old LP (today cds?) on the ceiling. They looked great and of course very personal...
How much freedom do you have to project?. May be not much. Perhaphs they give you the house constructed or the modulated cast concrete or already done. You know, many times, the less freedom you have the better it is.